It is 30 years since Visage released the seminal Fade To Grey. It was a huge dance floor hit, topping the charts in the UK and Europe. To celebrate this anniversary, Universal Music have announced the release of The Very Best of Visage, updated with 2009 remixes of Fade To Grey by Michael Gray – of The Weekend and Borderline fame, and Lee Mortimer, AKA Sawtooth Sucka and resident Ministry of Sound DJ, alongside the group’s complete chart topping hit singles and some of the classic and highly sought after original remixes and 12” versions.
Deadmau5 / Faxing Berlin
This track introduced me to Deadmau5 and I have been an avid fan ever since. He is the only DJ I have gone to see perform. To people who came for his music, his gigs at 02 club “matter“ and at The Roundhouse in London, the sound and lights were the stuff of my dreams from my early ecstasy trips at acid house parties.
Donna Summer / I Feel Love (Extended Club Mix)
Before I Feel Love, most disco recordings had been backed by acoustic orchestras, although electronic music had been produced for decades. Giorgio Moroder’s innovative production of this disco-style song, recorded with an entirely synthesized backing track, was influential in the development of disco, electronica, house and techno styles, and has even been said to have originated the latter genres. Patrick Cowley’s 15 minute remix to this track adds another dimension and I have always cited this track as my introduction to the possibilities of electronica for dance music.
David Bowie / Helden (the German language version of Heroes)
This song, inspired by Bowie’s life in Berlin in the late 70s, opened up Europe rather than America as a place for music, and with Kraftwerk in German, French and English, it united for me the use of local language and inspired me to find others.
Counting Crows / Round Here
One of the most powerful performances ever. If New Romantic is a description for emotional, melodic and powerful lyrics, then it should also cover rock — from the Stones to Nirvana to Iggy.
Iggy Pop / Turn Blue
Classic 12/8 ballad based on a blues riff. I used to follow this with James Brown’s It’s A Man’s World.
The Rockets / Space Rock (extended club mix)
The Rockets were an innovative French-Italian band, combining rock with electronic and disco in the late 70s. This track jumped out at me as a merge of electronica and disco, mixing with Georgio Moroder’s The Chase.
Hot Chip / One Life Stand
These guys are doing it for me. It’s music you can dance to, with interesting lyrics and melodies using synths and linn drum sounds.
Icehouse / Hey Little Girl
Icehouse extended the use of synthesizers, particularly the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (Love in Motion, 1981) and the Linn drum machine (Hey Little Girl, 1982). I Imagined a whole club waiting for the click for the four to the floor that never comes.
Talk Talk / Talk Talk (Extended Mix)
Melodic and rhythmic, with a very distinctive vocal. It builds and builds.
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